Canadians on TV Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael J Fox

Michael J Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1961. He is known both for his acting career on television ("Family Ties") and in the movies ("Back to the Future") and for his work in the fight against Parkinson's Disease, with which he was diagnosed in 1991. For four seasons on "Spin City" he played Mike Flaherty, deputy mayor of New York City, but left when his Parkinson's worsened.

In a very nice bit of intertextuality he reveals at the end of his last episode that he has become an environmental consultant in Washington DC, but is having real problems with the junior Senator from Ohio, one Alex P Keaton, the character whom Fox had portrayed on "Family Ties".

Answer: Neve Campbell

Neve Campbell was born in Guelph, Ontario, in 1973 and began her acting career in 1991. She played Daisy, one of the female leads in the Canadian musical drama "Catwalk" (1992-1994), and then had the starring role of Julia Salinger on Fox's "Party of Five" (1994-2000). She has appeared in many movies, most notably the four films in the "Scream" franchise.

Answer: Raymond Burr

Raymond Burr was born in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1917 and died in California in 1993. He had many roles in films, best-known for playing villains as in "Rear Window", "Pitfall", and "The Blue Gardenia", and also as the prosecuting attorney in "A Place in the Sun".

His most familiar part was in the television show "Perry Mason" on CBS (1957-1966), playing the defence lawyer who won almost all his cases. He moved to NBC for the series "Ironside" (1967-1975), playing Robert Ironside, a San Francisco police detective consigned to a wheelchair by a sniper's bullet.

Answer: Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland is the son of Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, and was born in London England in 1966. From age 10 he grew up in Toronto before moving to Hollywood in 1984. His first successful films were "Stand By Me" (playing the villainous Ace) and "Young Guns".

He is best-known for his role as Jack Bauer on the various series of the television show "24", for which he won several Best Actor awards in a drama series. From 2016-2019 he appeared in "Designated Survivor" as President Thomas Kirkman, a Cabinet member who succeeds to that office after a mass assassination of all those higher than him in the succession.

Answer: Jason Priestley

Jason Priestley was born in North Vancouver, BC, in 1969 and began his acting career with guest appearances on television, but his big break came in 1990 when he was cast as Brandon Walsh on the very popular show "Beverly Hills 90210" (1990-2000). Since then he has appeared in guest spots in both film and television, particularly "Call Me Fitz" (2010-2013) and the Canadian detective series "Private Eyes".

He has also made a successful career in directing TV episodes of quite a number of shows.

Answer: James Doohan

Putting Canadian actor, William Shatner, as the answer would have been too easy. Shatner's fellow Canadian, James Doohan, was born in Vancouver BC in 1920, and died in 2005. He is best-known for playing Chief Engineer, Montgomery Scott, aboard the starship Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" series, for its three-year run on television (1966-1969) and then the first seven of the "Star Trek" movies.

When he died, his ashes were placed aboard a shuttle mission and reportedly some were smuggled onto the Space Station.

Answer: Robert Joy

Robert Joy was born in Montreal in 1951 and brought up in St John's, Newfoundland. He is best known for his recurring character, Dr Syd Hammerbeck, the man in charge of autopsies and the morgue on "CSI: New York", and especially for his glasses which detached in the middle. He has had a number of guest spots on television, roles in movies, and also in Broadway theatre.

Answer: Nathan Fillion

Nathan Fillion was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1981 and began his acting career in the mid-1990s in the TV soap opera "One Life to Live" for which he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. He is best known for his role as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the two sci-fi series "Firefly" and "Serenity" and for playing the part of Richard Castle in "Castle" (ABC) which ran for seven seasons from 2009-2016.

In this series he played a mystery-writer who becomes involved with the Homicide Unit of NYPD and with its lead detective, Kate Beckett.

In 2018 he took on the role of John Nolan in "The Rookie", in which a man in his early forties decides to become a police officer.

Answer: Jay Baruchel

Jay Baruchel was born in Ottawa in 1982 but grew up in Montreal. From his early teens he has had an impressive career in both television and in films. His first lead role was as Thomas Thompson in "My Hometown", an family-freindly situation comedy set in an English-speaking community in Quebec.

His credits in the cinema include "She's Out of my League" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (both in 2010), the latter with Nicholas Cage. He has provided the voice for Hiccup Haddock, in the three animated "How To Train Your Dragon" movies (2010, 2014, 2019) and the television series "Dragons: Race to the Edge" which fills the gap between the first two films.

Answer: Missy Peregrym

Missy Peregrym was born in Montreal in 1982. She began her acting career in 2000 and had guest spots on quite a number of shows ("Smallville", "Andromeda", "Heroes") before landing the lead female role (Andy McNally) on the police show "Rookie Blue", which was set in Toronto and ran for six years from 2010 to 2016.

In 2018 she got the lead in "FBI" (as Maggie Bell). An interesting repetition is that in season 3 of "Rookie Blue" her character goes undercover and is not seen for a number of episodes, the same thing happening at the beginning of the second season of the CBS show "FBI".